Shadow Slave: Gleaming Stars

As soon as my echo grounded the spire messenger, I lept into action, dismissing the Ebon Chobtonice to avoid attracting any further attention.

With light, burdenless footwork, I closed in on the abomination lying disoriented in the crater, pumping a modest amount of aura into the [Midnight Shard].

The spire messenger noticed me almost instantly, letting out a sharp shriek as a mess of limbs shot in my direction. 

I spun on my heel, shifting my center of gravity lower to the ground, its attacks narrowly missing my body.

Without missing a beat, the Spire Messenger kept up the offensive, focusing entirely on ensuring I suffered a brutal end.

I weaved through a complex pattern of swipes, the Fallen creature taking full advantage of its aerial maneuvers to pressure me from a variety of angles. 

Though it had fallen for my rather obvious trap, the spire messenger was clearly an intelligent hunter, recognizing the range disparity between the two of us and playing outside of my reach, preventing me from landing a meaningful hit on it. 

Under its calculated assault, I simply evaded, occasionally deflecting with the [Midnight Shard] when caught in a bad position.

I probed the monster, taking note of its anatomy and the way it moved, looking for subtle signs or behavioral patterns I could exploit. Using the Star of Memory, I engraved every observation, sensation, and idea into my archive, adding it to the incomplete model I had built referencing my past experiences with other spire messengers. 

Letting my sixth sense guide my movements, I temporarily turned my gaze from the fallen beast, attempting to pinpoint my companion's location.

An endeavor in which I thankfully failed, the group having left a little while ago.

I let out a light breath, focusing my attention back on the Spire messenger with a childish smile.

A melodic hum flowed from my mouth, my footwork growing more rhythmic as I matched the pace of the Spire messenger's attacks.

I drew more aura from my heart, bringing my physical strength to a level similar to the fallen beast in front of me. 

Honestly, I just wanted to finally enjoy a fight for a bit, blow off some steam, and possibly secure a few shards for the road.

Raising the [Midnight Shard], I drew gentle arcs, the tip of my obsidian tachi following a graceful swordpath as all of the messenger's attacks flowed subtly off-course.

The wave of claws aimed at me instead struck the ruined ground, creating small craters upon impact.

Quickly realizing that it was in a bad position, the messenger reorganized itself and jumped back to reset the distance, hoping to regain its offensive advantage. 

Unfortunately for the fallen beast, I matched the pace of its retreat, perfectly maintaining my advantageous position.

Though momentarily caught off-guard by my sudden aggression, the messenger adapted quickly, launching a three-armed counterattack as I closed in.

Predicting the swift retaliation, I deliberately shifted my tempo, slowing down the rhythm of my footwork just enough to stand outside of the creature's range. 

Talons flashed past my eyes as the beast's attack missed completely.

Abusing the brief opening I had opened, I accelerated, threatening the Spire messenger with mock aggressiveness.

Recognizing the danger, its eyes flashed cautiously as it tactically repositioned a few meters away with a flap of its large wings. 

I stopped, letting it reorient itself while I simply observed its amusing reactions.

Changing its approach, it took to the skies, seeking to press me from a more uncomfortable angle with overwhelming speed.

The spire messenger beat its wings powerfully, glaring down at me like some kind of malevolent sparrow, which I oddly found quite cute. 

It quickly began to gain altitude before tucking its limbs in tightly, executing a blinding divebomb.

A small satisfied smile bloomed across my face as I changed my stance.

I brought my blade into a modified roof guard, aligning its edge with the trajectory of the Spire Messenger's dive, while I roughly estimated the speed of its descent.

My eyes narrowed as I made my move.

The [Midnight Shard] and the abomination moved in perfect sync, the tip of the blade making gentle contact with the side of the Spire Messenger's avian head.

As soon as I made contact, I curved my wrist lightly, taking advantage of its sharpness and digging the [Midnight Shard] into the creature's keratin beak before using the subtle inscission I'd made to guide the Spire Messenger off-course.

Not content with merely slamming the abomination into the hard, stone-covered ground, I pivoted, using the rotation of my waist and shoulders to generate explosive force as I turned its own speed against it. 

In the split second before the spire messenger hit the ground, I saw its eyes gleam with shock, unable to process my unexpected counter.

CRAKOOOM

A pillar of dust shot into the sky, a wet, gruesome crack layered on top of a thundering boom echoing throughout the ruins.

I let out a satisfied breath as the corners of my mouth began to curve upwards.

Though I had practically doxxed myself to every abomination in a 4-mile radius, that last counter had been particularly stress relieving. 

For the first time in a while, I hadn't used any fancy powers or authorities, just some good ol swordsmanship and a bit of elbow grease to finish the job.

"Hah~"

It took a few seconds, but the dust finally cleared, letting me appreciate the results of my work in all its gory glory.

As expected, upon collision with the ground, the Spire Messenger's head had exploded all over the ground like a bloody watermelon, while its spine was fractured on impact, sticking out of the now corpse like an ominous dorsal fin.

I winced, more out of reflex than genuine remorse, before expressionlessly ripping the ascended soul shard from the grusome mess.

Examining my rather meager earnings, I couldn't help but wonder how much this singular shard would net me at the castle.

'Realistically, 10 soul shards wouldn't get us that far, especially when we consider supplies, food expenses, and the regular tributes we have to pay...'

A contemplative look crossed my features.

'Wait...'

'Are we... broke?'

My expression contorted into a mask of solemn realization.

Suddenly, the horrifying cries of distant abominations didn't sound so bad...

In fact, they sounded oddly pleasing! 

I let my gaze wander around the surrounding ruins, then towards the sky, then at the two soul shads in my possession.

'Hmmmm'

'It's still morning, huh...'

'I mean... I got some time to kill... May as well, right?'

----------------------------------------------------------------

[9 hours later]

'Ah fuck.'

'The sun's setting.'

A bitter smile was plastered on my face as I stared at the horizon.

After hunting for quite a while, I had amassed a rather respectable fortune in Soul Shards.

42 awakened and 3 ascended shards were firmly packed into the silken pockets of my robe, the luxurious brown fabric stretched to a nearly translucent thinness.

In my paranoia-riddled craze, I went mad hunting down every single abomination I came across, even summoning the Ebon Chobotnice, which I had named Inky, to maximize efficiency.

I rocketed around the ruins like a capitalist ICBM for hours, losing track of time as I slimed everything in sight.

And now, only after my pockets were filled to the brim, my robes reeking of death, was I content with my progress. 

Honestly, I could've gotten more, but the nightmare creatures had a much stronger survival instinct than I thought, as they began to avoid the territory I had planted myself in like it was some kind of death zone, and well, technically, they weren't exactly wrong...

Anyway

'It's probably high time I regrouped with everyone at the castle.'

My eyes locked onto the distant form of the royal fortress.

'I have less than an hour to get there before the sun finishes setting.'

Using the Star of Memory, I began mapping out a route through the ruins.

'If I ran at full speed, it wouldn't be impossible...'

Or

I locked eyes with Inky, the colossal sea monster, tilting its head cutely, its behavior completely contrasting with its horrifying appearance. 

...

I nodded silently.

'Round 2.'

-------------

This time, I was far more meticulous with my instructions, making sure to give my cephalopod companion a detailed description of what exactly I needed it to do, how much strength to use, in what direction it needed to throw me, etc.

The starlight shell I had crafted wasn't pointed and aerodynamic, resembling more of a cube or a rectangular prism, depending on how you looked at it. 

Going through my mental checklist, I nodded sagely, ready for what would hopefully be a much smoother ride.

I had learned from my mistakes the first time and would not be making them again.

Inky slid up close to me, his tentacles coiling gently around my platinum shell.

The landing zone I had chosen was an empty-looking patch of land at the base of the hill the Castle stood on, slightly further away from the camps that Effie had mentioned. 

Inky was honestly surprisingly accurate last time he hurled me, so I trusted that he wouldn't accidentally throw me "too hard" and send me flying into the crimson spire or "too weak" and send me crashing into another nightmare creature-infested zone...

It was a gamble, but I live for the thrill, y'know?

Mentally preparing myself in case anything happened, I let out a sigh, flashing my echo a thumbs up before streaking across the twilight sky like an oddly shaped comet. 

_________________________________________________________

(A/N: If you couldn't tell, I was feeling pretty tired towards the end of the chapter, and thus it probably didn't end as strong as I would've liked it to. 

I have to go to work soon, and when I get back, I'll probably be so tired I'll drop dead on my couch, so if I check tomorrow morning when I'm significantly more lucid, and the second half of the chapter sucks, I might rewrite it...

Welp

Shorter note tdy ig

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